Dallas Cowboys Blog

Gosselin: Charles Haley passed over again for Hall, but door hasn’t closed for ex-Cowboy

NEW ORLEANS — Maybe it’s fitting that Charles Haley was passed over once again by the Pro Football Hall of Fame on Saturday.

His former Cowboys teammate Larry Allen was selected to the Class of 2013 in his first trip to the finals, but Haley was passed over for a fourth time.

Haley will likely be a finalist again in 2014 for the fifth time. Maybe that can be his karma. A fifth trip into the room would match his five Super Bowl rings, the only player in NFL history with that many.

The consolation for Haley is that no one jumped him in the pass rusher queue in this class. There were three edge rushers in the slate of 15 finalists — Haley, Kevin Greene and Michael Strahan — and none was chosen. Like Strahan, Greene was a first-time finalist.

Greene ranks third all-time in sacks with 160, Strahan fifth with 141 1/2 and Haley well down the list with 100 1/2. But those five Super Bowl rings remain a powerful argument — and, more important, he’s still making cuts.

The Hall of Fame is a process. You have to continue making the cuts — the cut to the 25 semifinalists, then the cut to the 15 finalists, the cut to 10 at the selection meeting and, finally, the cut to five.

Each of the last two years, Haley has made every cut except the last one. So he’s not falling behind. Greene failed to make the cut to 10 and Haley did stay abreast with Strahan, an all-decade performer in the 2000s. Haley was the only defender of the five on the ballot who was not an all-decade selection.

Allen was a rare two-time all-decade selection, one of only 12 such position players in NFL history. He was going to go in. Allen was the best candidate on this slate.

“I wish he could have gotten in with me,” Allen said of Haley. “He’s a great player.”

Maybe next year. There’s no shame in waiting. Derrick Thomas was elected in his fifth visits to the finals. So were John Mackey, Fred Biletnikoff, Bob Griese and Gary Zimmerman. All great players.

As a member of the committee, I do believe if a player belongs in Canton, he’ll get there. Eventually. Haley belongs.